The Catholic Gentleman Gift Guide 2017

Sam Guzman

Hi, my name is Sam, and I’m the founder and editor of the Catholic Gentleman. I’m the husband of a beautiful woman and the father of four precious children. I'm a blogger and author who live in the rolling hills of the Oklahoma Ozarks near Clear Creek Abbey.

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Christmas is coming all too quickly, and many of your are looking for the ideal gift for the Catholic man in your life. But let’s face it, men can be hard to buy for sometimes! Never fear. I’m here to help. Here’s 11 gift ideas that any man will love.

The Catholic Gentleman Stoneware Mug

The Catholic Gentleman stoneware coffee mug is a best-seller. It is also the perfect companion for your morning coffee ritual. This large, beautiful mug is made of hand-thrown pottery and crafted in Wisconsin, USA. A black and silvery glaze speaks of refined taste and subtle class, while the Catholic Gentleman logo is a reminder of the calling of every man to the pursuit of holiness.

The Catholic Gentleman Rosary
This manly rosary features heavy, gunmetal steel beads, military grade paracord, and a crucifix with relic dirt from the catacombs. It is the ultimate spiritual weapon for any Catholic man.

Whether hunting or simply commuting, at the construction site or at the office, every man needs a rugged thermos to keep his hot beverage warm. And you can’t get much more rugged than the classic Stanley Thermos. It’s so well insulated it can keep drinks hot for around 20 hours.

There are seemingly hundreds of published versions of the Bible, but the majority of them are cheaply produced. Even worse, they aren’t enjoyable to read, with verse numbers, notes, and paragraph markers cluttering up the page. Bibliotheca is different. It’s a stunningly crafted reader’s Bible, with immersive reading as the goal. There are no verse or even chapter numbers, and not footnotes. Every detail is finely crafted, from the bookmark (made in France) to the cover fabric, to the pages (made of a mineral base instead of wood). It is a gorgeous heirloom Bible that will change your experience of the scriptures. I have one and highly recommend it.

What’s more heartwarming than the gift of fasting and penance in your stocking? I’m sure it’s on every man’s wish list! Seriously though, Exodus 90 has changed hundreds of lives and renewed many men in their faith. Yes, it’s hard, but also rewarding. It will challenge you and change you. And if you start on January 1, you can finish on Easter.

I have featured tobacco pipes as gift ideas in the past, but this pipe carving kit takes it to another level. Not only will you have a (hopefully) beautiful pipe to smoke and enjoy, you can take pride in the fact that you designed and crafted it yourself. The kit comes with everything you need to take a pipe from your imagination to reality. Go ahead, create the pipe of your dreams.

Catholic gentlemen naturally love the faith. Men also love a good drink—at least all sane men. So what could be better than combining these two healthy passions in a book about beer and faith? I’ve got two to recommend. The first is Drinking With the Saints, an epic book with cocktail recipes and saint stories for countless liturgical feasts throughout the year. It’s simply amazing. The other is Trappist Beer Travels, a brand new book about the fine art of monastic brewing. It even features a look at America’s only Trappist brewery in Massachusetts. Either book would be welcome under a Catholic gentleman’s tree!

A Retro Keyboard

I love typewriters, and I have a beautiful Corona from the 1930s. Sadly, typing on a laptop is quite a different experience than writing with a vintage typewriter. Typewriters are much more difficult to use to the inexperienced. There is, however, a solution that offers the best of both worlds: A vintage keyboard. Use it with your laptop or desktop computer and enjoy the vintage aesthetics of functional art combined with the ease of writing on your computer.

A good prayer book is a good friend. Whether you are praying morning and evening prayers, asking for blessing on your work, or just praying spontaneously throughout the day, a prayer book gives the right words to express what is in your heart. By far the best prayer book I have found, and the one that I recommend, is Blessed Be God. Many of the prayers are taken directly from liturgical texts, and they have a dignity, poetry, and gravitas about them that I have not found in any other prayer book I’ve tried. It also has a wonderful index of topical meditations in the back with texts taken from scripture and the Imitation of Christ. Any prayer book will work, but I highly recommend Blessed Be God for every Catholic man.

Coffee Roasted by Monks

Coffee, like air to breathe, is a necessity of life. Yet, not all coffee is created equal. When you want good coffee and you want to support a worthy religious order, you naturally buy coffee made by monks. I recommend both Mystic Monk, brewed by wonderful Carmelites in Wyoming, and Humble Habits Coffee brewed by Byzantine Catholic monks in Wisconsin. Both coffees are excellent, as are both monastic houses.

Catholic Beard Balm

Beards are protection and winter and bring glory, like a lions mane, to those who grow them. But beards can grow wild and untamed, and the civilized man must train his beard with a steady and firm hand—as well as some beard balm. If tame your bead you must, there is nothing better to do so with than than Catholic beard balm. It smells like church and tames even the most rebellious of manes.

Just curious why you’re recommending a bible (Bibliotheca) based on the 1901 American Standard Version. It’s all well and good to have debates about which Catholic translation is most faithful– but this version is not approved by Rome for the faithful, unless I’m missing something?